The NIH announced in July 2024 that applicants and funded investigators will be required to use SciENcv for deadlines on or after May 25, 2025. SciENcv, a tool from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), already allows researchers to create and certify NSF documents. It will soon be required to create and certify the NIH Common Form Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support documents.
While these NIH forms are not yet available in SciENcv, one step you can do now to prepare for May is to make sure you give your delegates access to your SciENcv.
- NCBI allows users to have delegates for SciENcv and/or My Bibliography.
- Delegates need their own My NCBI accounts, they cannot use your login credentials.
- Your delegate can create and edit biosketches and other documents for you in SciENcv.
- You can have more than one delegate, and you can change their access at any time.
- Delegates can only be added or removed by you. No one at WashU can add delegates for you.
- Delegates cannot certify documents for you in SciENcv but they can notify you that you need to certify.
Your delegate does not need an eRA Commons or NSF account to be your delegate. Delegates can log in to NCBI with their WUSTL Key or many other login options. It is a good idea to make sure your delegate can log into NCBI before you add them as a delegate.
Please see the screenshots below to see how to add a delegate to your account.
Go directly to your My NCBI Settings and log in or click on your username in the upper righthand corner and select from the dropdown menu:
Scroll down to the Delegates section and select Add delegate.
Enter your delegate’s email address.
While you wait for your delegate to confirm their invitation, your account settings page will look like this:
Your delegate should log into NCBI. They should then go to their email, find the invitation and click the link in the email.
Your delegate needs to confirm the connection.
Once they have confirmed the connection, your delegate will see your username as a delegated account when they are on the main landing page for SciENcv and when they access your documents.
You can always return to your Account Settings if you need to change or remove your delegate’s access.
Ensuring your delegate has access to SciENcv is a great way to prepare for the changes coming in May. Stay tuned to Research News and Becker Library for more information about the upcoming changes.
Resources:
Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support
My NCBI Help: Adding and Removing Delegates
2025 Researcher Forum: Intro to SciENcv (WashU access only)